First job was to cut out the rusty metal. You can see in the pictures how the rust had gone right through the back and also affected the bonnet safety latch. Once cut out I used the old metal as a template to make a repair patch from some Zintec plated mild steel which I then spot welded in place before seam welding all the way round the patch. Once a satisfactory weld was achieved I then ground back the weld flat ready for filler and primer. I then made a small plate for the rear of the bonnet by the safety catch and welded it in place. As this repair was out of sight I did not bother grinding down the weld which also keeps strength in the weld as the catch needs to be strong.
To finish the repair I applied two coats of P38 filler rubbing flat each time with 240 grit wet and dry follow by a thick coat of filler primer which was wet flatted with 1200 grit wet and dry before applying 3 coats of top coat again wet flatting with 1200 between each coat. The final finish is ok but you can see it's been repaired as there is little chance of getting a decent colour match on 20 year old paintwork but it's good enough for the time being and much better than a rusty hole. The really annoying bit was the paint kept reacting after about 5 mins drying time. Everytime I applied the paint I got a near perfect finish only for it to react about 5 minutes after and no matter what I tried it didnt stop it. It looks like the paint boils i.e you get tiny bubbles in the paint which come to the surface? The paint only reacts on the section thats been repaired and has filler on? After trying 3 times I gave up. I will let it dry for a few weeks and try again with a different primer.
